Good evening. Welcome to the Just Sleep podcast. I'm Tasia, your host.

Every week, I will read you an old story to help you relax, put the stressful day behind you, and drift off to sleep.

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Tonight, I will be reading from Grimm's fairy tales,

Tom Thumb.

So lie down, close your eyes, and let me read you a story.

A poor woodman sat in his cottage one night, smoking his pipe by the fireside while his wife sat by his side spinning.

How lonely it is his wife, said he, as he puffed out a long curl of smoke, for you and me

to sit here by ourselves, without any children to play about and amuse us, while other people

seem so happy and merry with their children.

What she says very true, said the wife, sighing, and turning around her wheel,

how happy should I be if I had but one child? If it were ever so small, nay, if it were no

bigger than my thumb, I should be very happy and love it dearly.

Now, odd as you may think it, it came to pass that this good woman's wish was fulfilled,

just in the very way she had wished it. For not long afterwards she had a little boy,

who was quite healthy and strong, but was not much bigger than my thumb. So they said, well, we cannot say we have not got what we wished for, and little as he is,

we will love him dearly. And they called him Thomas Thumb. They gave him plenty of food,

yet for all they could do he never grew bigger, but kept just the same size as he had been when he was born.

Still, his eyes were sharp and sparkling, and he soon showed himself to be a clever little fellow, who always knew well what he was about.

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